RPF laments on Int’lWomen’s Day
IMPHAL, March 7: Revolutionary People’s Front (RPF), in a statement handed out to the media signed by its publicity secretary; Roben Khuman has greeted Manipuri Women on the occasion of International Women’s Day.
Manipuri women have no future as long as they are under the Indian colonialism.
RPF takes serious note of the degenerating status of Manipuri women and the unbridled rise of unwanted incidents meted out against them under the cultural and political yoke of Indian colonialism, said the statement.
Manipur women are no less than their world counterpart in the field of art, culture and sports. But they have to surrender their privilege of social and political independence after Manipur lost its sovereignty to India.
By keeping Manipur under its political yoke, India has thus subjugated Manipur’s culture as well.
This subjugation in turn will erase the identity of the indigenous people, which will be a triumph for India’s cultural imperialism. There are cultural dissimilarities between two nations.
Similarly there is always dissimilarity between a Manipuri woman and a Hindu Indian woman.
The subservient nature of Indian women got infested with the Manipuri women as well in the 19th century and reached it peak in the 20th century. From then onwards, prejudiced practice towards Manipuri women took its roots.
India’s regressive practice based on caste divisions particularly on women has maligned the then pristine glory of Manipuri women, the statement added.
Further the statement taking a cursory look at the social indices given by the United Nations Development Programme, maintains that status of Indian women has been very low as far as health and socio-economic indicators, when compared with man, are concern. Cases of female infanticides and dowry killings are rampant in Indian society.
Literacy rate of women are comparatively low both in India and Manipur whereas violent crime against women is on the rise.
This cannot be checked because there are inherent flaws in the Indian law and custodians of the law are irresponsible.
The failure to punish the culprit has indirectly encouraged crime against women.
No concrete action is seen unless there is widespread public agitation. For instance, the murder case of mother and daughter at Phayeng 7/8 years ago has not been solved till today.
The statement further decrying the Indian social system has lamented that Manipuri women has no future as long as they are under the colonial subjugation.
Tepid measures like security arrangement for women, sensitising the police and improving the justice delivery system may resolve the problem from time to time.
What is more central is the deep rooted social segregation based on caste and creed which is predominant in Indian society. The only way is to root out this system.
The so called leaders of the Indian state and their rhetoric of political democracy should address social democracy as its foundational steps.
It is therefore not so easy to root out the system of social segregation, which is embedded in the social system, even with efforts of 2-3 generations.
It requires long drawn efforts from different section of the society including intellectuals, who recognize the vicissitudes inherent in bringing about a social emancipatory action for both man and woman; who also know the pulse of the people.
The present political leaders could never achieve this.